Stinton: A Blueprint to Unionize

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Evolve Media.

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I know it may be hard to believe, but the biggest story in the MMA
world had little -- though not nothing -- to do with
UFC Fight Night 125 on Saturday in Belem, Brazil. It sounds
strange, since apparently the event was important enough to justify
a 15-hour run time, or at least that’s how it felt. However, as
good as it felt to see Lyoto
Machida snap a three-fight losing streak in front of a
supportive crowd of countrymen, a more pressing development was
going on behind the scenes.

It was announced that heavyweight champion Stipe
Miocic will fight light heavyweight titleholder Daniel
Cormier in the UFC
226 headliner in July. That alone is big news. This is the
first champion-versus-champion match in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history to take place above
welterweight, and it’s a genuinely compelling clash on its own.
Cormier was undefeated at heavyweight for four years and 13 fights,
and he didn’t just beat scrubs. Former UFC champions and title
contenders like Frank Mir,
Josh
Barnett, Antonio
Silva and Jeff Monson
decorate his heavyweight ledger, and eight of his 13 wins resulted
in stoppages. Cormier was a legitimate heavyweight talent despite
being small enough to compete at light heavyweight. Now that Miocic
is short on viable contenders, this is one of the best matchups on
the UFC roster for the heavyweight champion.

Attempts to unionize and/or form athlete associations in MMA have
mostly been short-lived flops. Many problems have been cited as
reasons why a players union like those in the NFL and NBA can’t be
replicated in MMA. It’s an individual sport; its violent nature
eschews cooperation between athletes; and the sport itself, with
fighters and organizations located all over the planet, is simply
too fractured. I tend to think these obstacles, while valid, aren’t
deal breakers. The problem has thus far been the attempt to
organize from the top down. What Cormier and Miocic have done,
however, is start from the most basic foundational component and
worked upwards to the UFC offices. This is the model to follow.

In the past, the UFC has been able to outmaneuver the martial
artists on its roster because of the fractious nature of
professional fighters. If a fighter tried to play hardball with his
contract, the powers that be would call the bluff and find someone
else to replace him. This is easy to do when fighters act as lone
wolves. Only the most super of superstars had individual leverage
that could compete with the UFC as an organization. This left
fighters out in the cold -- see Luke
Rockhold’s failed attempts to
strongarm the UFC into implementing an interim title -- or sent
them packing to Bellator MMA. Terms could be negotiated for
Conor
McGregor, Ronda
Rousey or Brock
Lesnar, but the UFC has been happy to let legitimate
needle-movers like Nate Diaz sit
on the shelf if the promotion thought it served its interests. Now,
thanks to the two heaviest champions, a new precedent has been set:
Fighters can increase their leverage when they work together.

Unions are frequently used as political fodder, and unfortunately,
there is some truth to the anti-union rhetoric. This clip from “The
Simpsons” aptly sums up the dynamic. Put aside whatever
opinions you have about unions in general for a moment, however,
and it’s clear that MMA needs to reallot its negotiating power more
equitably. This is where UFC Fight Night 125 comes in.

John Dodson
only made a portion of his show money after his opponent failed to
make weight. Originally, Dodson wasn’t going to get paid at all,
but enough pressure was put on UFC President Dana White and Co. to
force their hand. How is that fair? Dodson still had to pay for a
full training camp, and he fulfilled his end of the bargain by
coming in on weight. Though it’s his right to decline a fight when
an opponent shows up in another weight class, the UFC uses its
bargaining power to pressure fighters into situations they
shouldn’t accept by its ability to withhold money; and it’s not
like there’s any consistency, either.
Tony Ferguson got less than half of his show money when
Khabib
Nurmagomedov pulled out last-minute, and
Vitor Belfort didn’t get anything when Uriah Hall pulled out.
How can fighters expect to make a living when the actions of their
opponents can completely eliminate their paychecks? Don’t be
fooled; the difference between paying and not paying fighters their
show money does not equate to an event being in the red or in the
black for the UFC. All its events are profitable; it’s just a
matter of the UFC paying itself instead of paying its fighters.

Even the most staunchly anti-union types can concede that this is
an unjust power dynamic. Among other things, a union can normalize
protocol for late-notice fight cancellations and do so in a way
that doesn’t penalize the fighters who did everything right. For a
billion-dollar company that
pays celebrity amateurs the same as it pays its
pays its champions -- and let’s leave White’s $20 million
salary out of it for today -- a union is long overdue. Cormier and
Miocic got the ball rolling and showed the rest of the fighters how
to do it. Don’t wait for an overarching organization to handle
everything for you. Just talk to each other and then build up from
there.

Hailing from Kailua, Hawai’i, Eric Stinton has been contributing
to Sherdog since 2014. He received his BFA in Creative Writing from
Chapman University and graduate degree in Special Education from
University of Hawai’i. He is an occasional columnist for Honolulu
Civil Beat, and his work has also appeared in The Classical. You
can find his writing at ericstinton.com. He currently lives in Seoul with his
fiancé and dachshund.